1. Technical Field
The present specification describes a liquid discharging head and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, a liquid discharging head for discharging liquid and an image forming apparatus including the liquid discharging head.
2. Discussion of the Background
Image forming apparatuses, such as copiers, printers, facsimile machines, plotters, or multifunction printers having at least one of copying, printing, scanning, and facsimile functions, typically form an image on a recording medium (e.g., a sheet) by a liquid discharging method. Thus, for example, a liquid discharging head discharges liquid (e.g., an ink droplet) onto a conveyed sheet, and the liquid is then adhered to the sheet to form an image on the sheet.
Such liquid discharging head may include a piezoelectric actuator for generating pressure to compress ink contained in a pressing liquid chamber, so that ink droplets are discharged from a nozzle connected to the pressing liquid chamber onto the sheet.
Currently, there is market demand for an image forming apparatus capable of forming high-quality images at high speed. To accommodate such demand, the liquid discharging head may include more nozzles arranged in more densely packed formation to provide such high-quality images. A by-product of such an arrangement is that it causes a gap, that is, a separation wall, provided between the adjacent pressing liquid chambers to become narrower and consequently weaker. To provide image formation at the requisite high speed, a long liquid discharging head corresponding to a full-width of a sheet is used.
The pressing liquid chambers may be formed of a channel member, such as a silicon plate or a metal plate. When a silicon plate is used as the channel member, the separation walls provided in the silicon plate can provide the necessary strength even with relatively narrow separation walls. However, it may take a longer time period and increased costs to etch through-holes or concave portions serving as the pressing liquid chambers in the silicon plate. Moreover, use of silicon plate complicates manufacture of the long liquid discharging head described above.
On the other hand, when a metal plate, such as an SUS plate, is used as the channel member, the pressing liquid chambers can be processed in the metal plate easily at decreased costs. However, the separation walls may provide decreased strength.
Another problem is that the channel member is attached to a nozzle plate provided with nozzles and to a vibration plate serving as a wall surface of the pressing liquid chambers with an adhesive. However, the adhesive may not provide the necessary adhesion strength for the narrower separation walls provided in the channel member.